A 40-year-old Oregon girl, who was accused of raping a bit of boy tons of of occasions, was discovered lifeless in her jail cell after a decide refused her request.
Tina Ketcham, a 40-year-old Oregon girl, was accused of raping an underage boy tons of of occasions, Metro reported. She was arrested and arraigned on six counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree intercourse abuse, one depend of first-degree sodomy, and 6 different intercourse offenses after victimizing an underage boy who prosecutors mentioned she knew.
First-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, and first-degree intercourse abuse are “measure 11” crimes in Oregon and carry obligatory minimal sentences of a number of years in jail. Ketcham, who pleaded not responsible, stood to face much more fees, nonetheless, that means she was a really very long time behind bars if convicted.
“It is a scenario the place tons of of fees might have been introduced,” Prosecutor Keith Stein informed a courtroom throughout a listening to in Albany, Oregon. He defined that the fees Ketcham confronted solely represented a fraction of the alleged abuse she dedicated over a 5 yr interval earlier than her sufferer was capable of get in contact with police and inform them what was happening.
Though investigators didn’t disclose Ketcham’s relationship to her alleged sufferer to be able to defend his identification, they did say he was recognized to her when the abuse started. Ketcham denied the crimes and hoped to be freed on bail. Her lawyer, Stephen Doyle, claimed Ketcham’s stake as part-owner in an area enterprise meant she was a low flight threat. She had no legal historical past, and her lawyer alleged that granting her bail would imply she might attend counseling periods. The decide didn’t appear to agree.
“My argument to get her out of there was primarily based on three elements. One, she was not a flight threat. She wasn’t going anyplace. … The second argument was that she wasn’t a security threat to anyone within the Albany group. She was going to be residing up within the Portland-metro space,” Doyle mentioned, in an interview … The third argument was that for Ketcham’s psychological well being and her personal security, she wanted to proceed with remedy and counseling periods, Doyle added.
At Ketcham’s bail listening to, the decide refused to decrease her bail from $350,000 to $50,000, denying a request for decreased safety, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported. Though she was dealing with a long time behind bars if convicted of the fees in opposition to her and probably having extra added to it, Ketcham wouldn’t serve rather more time behind bars. As an alternative, she was discovered lifeless in her Linn County Jail cell.
“Whereas performing hourly safety checks at 5:10 am this morning, corrections deputies discovered Tina Ketcham hanging in her cell and unresponsive,” Linn County Sheriff Jim Yon informed KATU. “Deputies instantly entered the cell, activated medics, and started life-saving measures. Albany Fireplace Division paramedics arrived on scene at 05:18 a.m. and shortly thereafter pronounced Ms. Ketcham deceased.”
Simply over two weeks after her arrest on a number of little one intercourse fees, Tina Ketcham hanged herself in her jail cell after the decide refused her bail. This shouldn’t have actually come as a shock. Ketcham had tried suicide twice for the reason that Albany police started their investigation. Nonetheless, she had not proven indicators of misery on the jail, in keeping with Sheriff Yon. So, though she was in protecting custody and in a cell by herself — doubtless as a result of approach fellow inmates could reply — she was not on suicide watch.
“If we’ve an individual who’s giving us these indicators,” they’d be positioned on suicide watch, Yon mentioned. Ketcham’s protection lawyer disagreed, saying his consumer “completely” ought to have been on suicide watch. However is that the aim of a jail? Some would argue that it’s not a spot the place criminals are saved protected from themselves however somewhat the place they’re held to maintain the remainder of us protected from them. Regardless, I don’t suppose many tears will likely be shed for an accused pedophile who took her personal life somewhat than dealing with courtroom justice for her alleged crimes.
